Ebola Czar: Mishandling of Samples ‘Unacceptable’

Ebola czar Ron Klain on Sunday defended the Centers for Disease Control’s response to the Ebola crisis, even as he criticized this week’s mishandling of a virus sample that exposed a technician to the disease.

“It’s obviously unacceptable to have any mishandling of Ebola materials,” Klain said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” where he hailed the CDC’s efforts to fight Ebola in the United States and called the agency a national treasure.

Klain, the U.S. Ebola response coordinator appointed by President Obama earlier this year, said the CDC was reviewing this week’s incident and would have a full report ready within weeks.

He also said it was important to put things in perspective.

“There was no risk to the public, no risk to the CDC campus generally,” he said. “Only one technician was exposed. So far she’s showing no signs of having the disease.”